From Deseret News archives:
Utahns favorable to a tax for TRAX
A Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll last week by Dan Jones & Associates of 245 Salt Lake County residents shows that 56 percent of them would support a property-tax increase to expedite construction of four TRAX lines in the county. About 39 percent would oppose such an increase.
The poll had a margin of error of 5 percent.
Transit supporters said Wednesday that the results bode well for a push this fall to get residents to vote for a property-tax hike for TRAX. But Salt Lake County Councilman Joe Hatch said Wednesday that the poll numbers may have been different had residents been told specifically what they'd be paying to build the TRAX lines.
"I bet it would not be as positive of an answer," Hatch said.
A separate Dan Jones poll of 424 county residents, conducted for the Utah Transit Authority last October, showed that only 40 percent of residents would support a property tax hike when they were given the specific amount of the increase. About 46 percent were opposed.
Regardless, Hatch is pushing the Salt Lake County Council to put a proposal to raise taxes for TRAX on the ballot this fall. "If we do this, we will improve our quality of life and standard of living, and it is worth the cost of the property-tax increase," he said.
If a "realistic proposal" comes before the council, Hatch said, most members would "probably" support putting it on the ballot. No time frame has been given for when the council would vote to put it on the ballot.
John Inglish, general manager of the Utah Transit Authority, said Wednesday that it will cost $1.2 billion to build TRAX lines to the airport, South Jordan, West Valley and Draper. UTA anticipates voters would need to pay $875 million of those costs with a bond funded over 30 years through the property-tax increase.
Construction on all four lines could begin within a year if funding is obtained, Inglish said. They would all be operational in seven years.
"The question is: Is this the kind of investment people are willing to make to get the quality of life they have come to expect?" Inglish said.
E-mail: nwarburton@desnews.com
